April 10th is a day marked with golden letters in the history of Medical Science and eventually a great day for the mankind. This was the day in1755 when the Genius known as Dr. Christian Samuel Fredrich Hahnemann, the ultimate Father of homoeopathy was born.
If there had been no Hahnemann, the medical world would have been much poorer. As he gave the dictums which are being understood today in 21st Century by the modern Scientists and Doctors all around.The credit for discovering Homoeopathy goes to this great man who introduced to the world the Law of Similarity between drug and disease and the Law of Dynamisation.
Though the principle of similarity was known to Hippocrates, but the main credit for those who followed it goes to Dr. Hahnemann, a great doctor of the late 18th Century. Hahnemann scientifically proved that there are principles and laws which governs the practice of medicine. He talked about the Vital Force or the Vital Energy which was ridiculed at that time but now accepted world wide as the Immune System theory. He discovered a safe and sure system of medicine which is Gentle and treats & cures the patient named HOMOEOPATHY in Greek which means Homoeo- Similar and Pathos – Suffering.
Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the genius was a German doctor who proved that if the vital force is deranged one becomes sick, and can be felt at a dynamic plane which later on menifests itself in the form of symptoms that appear on the physical plane . He being an MD of his time & was physician & chemist par excellance. After many years of practical experience, his scientific mind was neither satisfied, nor convinced of the effectiveness of the existing medical practices which so often way of treatment which did more harm than good to the patients.He realized that drugs had been prescribed on the human beings without proper knowledge of their actins and reactions and that this system of treatment only dealt with symptoms and not with the disease itself, least of all with individual suffering. He sought for method which would be safe, gentle and effective. He believed that human beings have a capacity for healing themselves & that symptoms of disease reflect the individuals struggle to overcome the forces antagonistic to life. Now a days known as Immune system of the body. The physician’s work must be to discover & to stimulate the vital healing force of the nature.
Dr. Hahnemann & his followers were so convinced of his theory, which he evolved in 1790 while translating Cullen’s Materia Medica, that a drug can produce all those symptoms which it is used to cure for, if given to a healthy human being in substantial doses. With this they started carrying out experiments on themselves (called Drug proving) in which over a long period they took small doses of even various reputedly poisonous or medicinal substances, carefully noting the symptoms produced. Patients suffering from similar symptoms were then treated with these substances or drugs with the very encouraging results. And that’s how Homoeopathy came into existance.
Having thus established the principle of Similarity, Hahnemann worked to establish the smalles effective dose for he realized that this was the best way to avoid the side-effects. To his surprise he found that, using a special method of dilution, the more similar remedy was diluted the more active it became. Whilst dissimilar were ineffective. He, therefore called his method Potentisation and his serial dilutions Potencies to indicate the power that was developed. In away to understand it can be called the splitting of finer particles or as atomizing the medicinal substance. This paradox that less of a substance could be more effective was unsurprisingly unacceptable to the scientific thought of that time. Dr.Hahnemann & his flloweres were ridiculed, but homoeopathy survived simply because it achieved remarkable results and today a changing outlook in science renders the concept of infinitesimal dose less incredible.
The principles & laws of Homoeopathy remains the same and do not change. Hahnemann’s homoeopathy deals both in science and art. As the basis of disease understanding is very scientific & the application of knowledge of the disease & medicine is an art.
Whereas historically the medical world went Ga-ga with the discovery of Bacteria, Virus and later on with the Antibiotics. In the past the Penicillin was the most hap thing and did wonders with the results till people started showing the resistance and Allergic response to the same and in some cases proved even fatal. Now the New Generation Antibiotics considered to be having very wide range of effectiveness becomes obsolete in the following years and the bacterias becomes Resistant to them till another variety of more potent Antibiotics etc. are developed & marketed. Should the law or principle keep changing as the theories do in so called modern science .
The efficacy of the small tiny pills have withstood the test of more than 200 years. Interestingly the very name of this pathy reminds of tiny globules to the individual sufferer who earlier thought, what ? these small pills are meant for me to cure my such a state of health, where I don’t feel to be normal at all, rather feel myself to be living museum of various sicknesses and diseases. And surprisingly how can these sweet little pills will help me when, I ‘ve already consumed a bagful of big tablets, capsules and a variety ofpricks at various places in the form of injections and even then they could not provide the normal state of health to me. So , he, the patient wonders and doubts the efficacy of the curative power of these small magic pills of homoeopathic remedy. But soon after taking the dose of small pills he discovers the change in himself and to his utter pleasant surprise “That what miracle these small pills have done in the economy of his health” and finally he becomes an ardent admirer of these pills and eventually to the pathy known as homoeopathy.
Dr. Samuel Fredich Hahnemann was the first physician who discovered “Man, the unknown”. His mind, his feelings of love and hate and depression, his mental impulses neurosis, like and dislikes, sensations , jelousy, rage, desire, sex, aversions, mania, fear and phobias can not be ignored when treating diseases. They are the prime factors. He said pathology recognizes nothing but the man’s body. Dr. Hahnemann said the Mind is key to the man. Man consists of what he thinks and what he loves and there is nothing else in a man. If these two grand parts of man the Will and the Undersatnding, be separated, it means Insanity, disorder and death. A century later, Sigmund Freud’s dramatic introduction of the psychoanalysis proved Dr. Hahnemann’s point.Today physicians have realized the relation between the mind and physical illness. Homoeopathy considers it better to treat the Sick person rather than the disease alone. Since even though the disease may be the same, but each patient reacts in a different way and as such produces symptoms which are peculiar to himself. The homoeopath takes into considerations all the symptoms of the case, the common and uncommon ones, giving more value to the later, which reflects the patient’s individuality and prescribes that remedy which has produced the identical group of symptoms in the provings.
With more and more patients developing resistance to the so called prescribed specific wonder treatment find themselves lost, so the doctors remain in dilemma that despite of the best choice of specific drug therapy the patients don’t respond favorably. If at all a patient becomes better by these strong medication it gets its toll in the form of some unwanted adverse effects as its compensatory price. Every year we are confronted with one epidemic or the other leaving behind a devastating effect on the human economy. Today when India has acquired the Nuclear efficiency, we fail to provide the basic health care to our children from the deadly Malaria’s, Measles, Dengue, Tuberculosis, Gastro entritis etc. When lot of Government effort has been made to evolve various health schemes to combat these maladies, unfortunately the various systems of medicine have not been given their due representation for achieving this goal. As there is a very good potential in treating and preventing quite a few of these problems by the Indigenous system of Medicine and Homoeopathy at large. As now a days every latest drug (so called magical drugs) of modern medicine has definite adverse effects on some part, organ or system of the human body. This has been proved beyond doubt repeatedly at various platforms by medical experts while discussing about iatrogenic diseases etc. In the present day scenario when more and more cases of Tuberculosis are becoming Multi Drug Resistant (MDR TB) to the Antitubercular treatment, Homoeopathic treatment is coming to their rescue and quite a many cases have responded favourably and has been cured. In the danger arena of AIDS and HIV infections it is becoming an all time threat to the human race. In India itself the number of patients suffering and dying with AIDS is alarming. Homoeopathy as such by its time testing record is able to provide the booster to the vital energy of the suffering patients by virtue of its basic principles and approach. Homoeopathic medicines enhances the defensive capacity of the individual in other words improves the Immune system by the very specialised Individual , Constitutional treatment which is the basis of the treatment in homoeopathy and that is why it is said that the Homoeopathy treats the Man in totality who is sick and not the mere disease of some organ or system etc of his. It recognises the ultimate Man whose vital energy has got deranged or altered due to certain morbific external agents in the form of disease causing factors, but this all happens to the person who is prone, or whose immune system is weak to withstand that morbific factors, that’s why people living in same environment, patho-physiological conditions do not respond always similarly, and if at all they get affected their reactions are different and their genetic, aptitude, physical and mental make-up is different and accordingly their response is also different. Under such circumstances if the treatment is also done on their specific individuality and susceptibility the patient is going to develop the natural resistance against the disease phenomenon and gets well. Since homoeopathy is a therapeutic system of medicine developed in the early 18th century by a German Scientist Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, whose birth Anniversary is being celebrated on 10TH April every year. Homoeopaths all over the world celebrate it as Hahnemann’s Day . He evolved Homoeopathic system with a basic law of similarity i.e. “Similia Similibus Curentur”. Homoeopathy has already established a name in treating Chronic diseases. But it is equally effective in Acute and serious conditions also. Though some of the happiest results of homoeopathic treatment can be seen in the babies and children, here natural vitality is at its highest and infrequent use of well chosen constitutional homoeopathic remedy can set the small baby’s feet firmly on way to health. Dr.Hahnemann emphasised that the man should be treated as whole. There are certain misconceptions prevailing like it takes very long or it is good only for children and older diseases and also that first the disease is aggravated than cures and also that there are lot of restrictions with this medicine, all these needs clarifications because all this is not true.
Homoeopathy is a system in which remedy is chosen on the basis of patient’s individual symptoms comprising of his mental, emotional, and physical state. Homoeopathy is not a panaccea but is an elixir of life looking at the positive side of the person with holistic approach. Homoeopathic treatment has been helping a lot many number of people with so called incurable diseases also and earned laurels in the field of providing permanent cure to the diseases with no adverse effects whatsoever. Homoeopathy does not underrate the efficacy of other systems and surgery but argues for its commercial abuse. There are quite a many cases which can be saved from unnecessary surgery if the homoeopathic treatment is given at proper time. Homoeopathy has a role to play in the preventive medicine also as it has done in the case of Plague, Dropsy etc. In this era of 21st century Homoeopathy is going to be reckon as a medical system of the modern age for its efficacy, cost effectiveness and harmless way of curing the diseases. It stands in the tradition that extends from the time of Aesulapius(God of medicine) until the present day when we offer sweet pills to eat sweet behaviour to admire with maximum curative rate and no side effectsAs a tribute to the Father of Homoeopathy on his birth anniversary I dare to say that “HOMOEOPATHY ENSURES HEALTH SAFELY” & long live Dr. Hahnemann and long live Homoeopathy.
I am forever indebted to you for this infrmoaiotn.